Pages: 27-40 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp2362740

A popular Bulgarian game for young children “Granny, give me a fire” is considered here by addressing the most likely historical context for its emergence. The protagonists in the studied folkloric mini-tale are: the Fire, the Grandpa and the Dog, while the Grandma and the Child are the ones who actually play the game. The actors and the circumstances that define the multilayered events in these rhymes allow us to date the origins of this story by the late Stone Age. The Grandma’s character, who drives the action, gradually evolves as she introduces her grandson to the dialectics of the ‘wheel of life’. Although any precise dating of the verbal folklore is a very difficult exercise, we cannot exclude that searching for new details and parallels to the elements of this story will open a way to further studies into preserved relics of game culture.

Keywords: Bulgarian game, nursery rhymes, child, Grandma, Grandpa, fire, dog, Stone Age, relic, ancestor, wheel of life

Information about author:

Nicolai Russev (Kishinev, Moldova). Doctor Habilitat of History. High Anthropological School University. N. Iorga St., 5, Kishinev, MD-2009, Moldova
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0001-8478-6706